


not invisible anymore

by pumpkinsonly



Series: You Should Stick Around: A Role Swap AU [2]
Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Beetlejuice as Lydia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lydia as Beetlejuice, Lydia's Four Parents as Lydia's Four Parents but Ghosts, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-13 17:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21191447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pumpkinsonly/pseuds/pumpkinsonly
Summary: That night on the roof, just a little different.





	not invisible anymore

**Author's Note:**

> [i would be remiss if i didnt first link to cr4zyg33k's BEAUTIFUL art which heavily inspired this fic!](https://cr4zyg33k.tumblr.com/post/188564921339/role-reversal-lydiaaaaaaaaa#notes)
> 
> btw: not meant to be beetlebabes even though lawrence (beetlejuice) is aged down! they are both gay and siblings. obviously. also i write a lot of beetlelands, and i do love that ship in regular canon, but its obviously not present in this AU. I really feel like i shouldn't have to say this but people are crazy. so there's my disclaimer.
> 
> also i'm kind of playing calvinball with the pre-established canon 
> 
> ok enjoy
> 
> EDIT 10/27/19: okay lmfao i accidentally tagged this as delia deetz/adam maitland. sorry if you were expecting that :'D

“C’mon, Lawry. Three time in a row. Don’t you want to keep scaring your old bitch?” She drapes an arm across his shoulders. “I thought we made a great team. We can be that way forever, if you just --”

“LYDIA!”

Spidereye grimaces. “Fuck.”

Lawrence, legs still swinging over the edge of the roof, frightens at the sound. “Who’s that? Who’s Lydia?”

Spidereye turns to him, her eyes now glowing a deep red. She pats him on the head condescendingly. “Don’t worry about it. For every inch yours is shitty, mine are equally overbearing. Let me deal with ‘em, then we can get back to you.”

“LYDIA!” another voice calls. It’s higher this time, sounds like a woman. Two others join it, another man and woman. Suddenly, he sees the owners of the voices appear atop his roof -- two men and two women, just like he thought. And complete strangers. Fuck, Juno’s gonna be pissed if she hears how loud they are.

“Lydia! There you are, baby.” One of the women, dressed in green, swoops down on her. “What are you doing? You can’t be here!”

The taller man, dressed darkly with a beard, joins in with the woman. “Lydia, you can’t scare us like that! We didn’t know where you were, anything could have happened!”

Lawrence stares in shock. The four strangers bustle around Spidereye, calling her ‘Lydia,’ treating her like a child. She hadn’t acted like a child when she had busted that mirror in Juno’s face, cackling at the top of her lungs. Lawrence affords himself a small smile at the memory. Whoever these people were, he had to admit that the attention they were giving Spidereye seemed... nice. He could almost take his mind off of the edge of the roof watching them.

Spidereye, for her part, looks pissed. “Stop, stop!” she protests. “I was in the middle of something!”

The man dressed in plaid huffs. “You’ve been gone for three days, ladybug! We’ve been worried sick.” 

The other woman, wrapped in a purple dress, agrees, ruffling Spidereye’s hair. “You just don’t know how these things go yet, darling! We told you we’d be there to help you out, and we meant it. Now, what were you in the middle of?”

Spidereye (Lydia?) stomps her foot, rolls her eyes, and points at Lawrence. “Him. Ugh, I look like a total dork now. I was on to something here.”

The four adults turn their collective gaze on him like a laser. Lawrence sweats under their gaze. They’re kind of intimidating, standing tall over him -- which, granted, isn’t hard, but the effect still stands. 

There’s a beat where they all stare at each other. Lawrence has absolutely no idea what they're thinking and it seems the feeling is mutual. But then, the man dressed in plaid reaches out a hand, pulling him to his feet. “Hey, buddy, little close to the edge there.” He smiles at him genuinely. “Wouldn’t want you to fall off.”

Lawrence takes his hand, standing up to face the five other people who have turned his roof into some sort of reunion spot. What’s off the edge of the roof can wait, he figures.

The bearded man holds out a hand. “Nice to meet you, son. I’m Charles, Lydia’s father.”

Lawrence shakes his hand, unsure of himself. The minute he does, he’s thrown into a whirlwind of introductions. There’s Delia, Charles’s wife in the purple dress, Barbara, the woman in the green dress, and Adam, the man in plaid and Barbara’s husband. They all claim to be Lydia’s -- still not Spidereye’s -- mother or father (except for Delia, who calls herself her stepmother? Lawrence is unsure of how a ghostly stepmother works). Spidereye huffs and groans out of the corner of his eye at every handshake they share.

“And how did you get to know Lydia?” Barbara asks him once the introductions are done.

“Uh -- I -- okay, who’s Lydia?” he finally asks. “That’s... Spidereye? That’s what she told me to call her when I was ready to summon her.”

The adults look at each other, then back at Spidereye, whose now downcast eyes have gone yellow.

“Lydia,” Adam starts. “I know you weren’t about to do your first haunting by yourself. How did you get this far?”

Spidereye lets out a sound of pure frustration at that, eyes flipping back to red like a switch. She marches over to Lawrence, taking his hand. “I can do it by myself!” she shouts. “Lawrence and I are getting rid of his mom. I’m _good_ at this, and I’m not going to stop here! I’m helping him!”

The group of adults sighed almost as a whole. “Lydia, dear, we’ve been over this! You just can’t account for what the living will do. This could have been _extraordinarily_ bad!” Charles says. “You’re lucky that you seem to have met such a nice young man instead of... who knows what! We know you can handle it, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to do so when you’re so young.”

Spidereye relents under that line of reasoning. “_Okay_. Look, I know I probably shouldn’t have gone so far so soon --” Each of the parents nod. “-- but he needs help!” To Lawrence’s embarrassment, she lifts up his arm to show a nasty looking bruise on the underside. He quickly brings his arm down again, face going pink. It had been hard enough to show Spidereye what she’d done to him and now she was showing the entirety of her family the aftermath of a disagreement with Juno.

Their reaction isn’t the one he’s used to though -- countless teachers have averted their gaze from his bruises and scrapes and the preacher at their church had merely shaken his head disapprovingly at him when Juno had exploded on him after a service once. Spidereye had barely believed it when she first saw, incredulous that his mom could do that to him. Now, he thinks, he knows why.

“You poor thing!” Delia says, hurrying over to take his hand gently. Adam and Barbara have tears in their eyes, wiping them away frantically to come and stand by his and Spidereye’s side as well. Charles gives a sharp intake of breath, his hand tightening into a fist. 

The adults worry over him for a bit before Spidereye shoves them off, hand still clenched around his own. “Give him room, guys!”

They acquiesce, scattering back to their previous positions. “That’s just not right,” Barbara says, still tearing up as she speaks. “We can’t let this go even if you really wanted us to, Lydia.” She addresses Lawrence directly. “Lawrence, that’s _not_ okay, and we want to help you. Did… did your mother do that to you?”

Lawrence wilts under the attention they’re giving him. He takes his hand back from Spidereye, crossing his arms against his chest tightly. Tears come to his eyes, something he thought he’d trained himself out of years ago. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “Juno. I don’t call her mom.”

Barbara bundles him up in a hug at that. It’s nice, somehow warm despite her skin being chill to the touch. Lawrence lets his tears fall silently, burying his face into her shoulder. It’s been a while since he’s gotten a hug like this.

She lets him go after a bit, turning to the group of adults. “We have to help,” she says definitively.

Charles, who’s just finished giving Spidereye a bear hug of his own, nods, Adam and Delia following suit. 

Spidereye grins. She’s changed with her family around, her eyes relaxed to a softly glowing green. Lawrence gets the feeling they don’t spend much time apart and that she’s even stronger with them around. The amount of power Spidereye had displayed even without Lawrence saying her name three times had to have come from somewhere, right?

Barbara gives a final, sharp nod, looking back at Lawrence. The seemingly normal hazel iris of her eye disappears, replaced by pure black. She smiles, teeth now changed into fangs dripping with blood. “Let’s get that bitch _out_.”

**Author's Note:**

> ok i ADORE this role swap and i have a ton of ideas for it. but knowing me who knows if i'll write more!!
> 
> lmk if you liked
> 
> i'm on tumblr @seizetheday-o


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